Jenson Button & Paul di Resta Positive Towards Pirelli’s Tyres

Amid controversy surrounding Pirelli’s 2013 tyre range, Jenson Button and Paul di Resta have explained how they believe the Italian supplier’s new range has had a positive impact on the sport. Throughout the opening three races, “tyres” has been mentioned incessantly as the grid has struggled to understand the new range.

However, Jenson Button in particular has explained how he thinks the opening three races of the new season have been extremely entertaining, despite the Briton’s lack of decent results after McLaren’s woeful start to their 2013 campaign. Last time out in China, the 2009 World Champion opted for a two-stop strategy which enabled him to progress from 8th to 5th during the 56-lap race. There is no question that the Pirelli tyres have contributed to a lot more overtaking in recent races, however some fans have been divided in their opinions on whether this is good or bad for the sport.

“I think there’s been a lot of overtaking.” Explained Jenson Button, in defense of Pirelli who have received lots of negativity in recent weeks. “You know, we’re never going to be happy with everything in this sport or in any sport but I think the racing has been good fun. I was on the receiving end of most of it at the last race, because obviously doing less stops you’re running old tyres most of the time, so there’s people overtaking you most of the time. So it’s not the enjoyable part of it for me, but I think if you were doing a three-stop strategy at the last race it was a fun race. They seemed like they were able to push pretty hard.

“In the past we had tyres that would last the whole race and there wasn’t any overtaking. It’s very difficult to get the correct balance. But we’re having two or three stops which I think is what the idea was for racing in 2013 so that’s good and there are a lot of teams fighting at the front. I think Formula One’s great at the moment. I’m really enjoying racing.”

Paul di Resta has also spoken out in defence of Pirelli’s 2013 range of tyres.

Paul di Resta also believes Pirelli’s unpredictable tyres are having a positive impact on the sport, with midfield team’s such as Force India able to punch well above their weight as the tyres level the playing field. During the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Adrian Sutil led 11 laps during the race after starting the race from 12th on the grid. Last season teams such as Sauber and Williams reaped the rewards of the unpredictability caused by the tyres, something Paul di Resta and Force India are keen to do this season.

“I see it as a very positive thing in the position that we are as a team, midfield, where Jenson’s fighting at the moment.” Said Paul di Resta, “Obviously we’re trying to take it to them, but being unpredictable gives you chances. Equally, when you see the big guys at the front, putting a load through the tyres in qualifying, it plays into our hands towards the end of stints. At the end of a Grand Prix, that’s valuable points for us and if you can take a gamble and it pays off, like the position we were in last year, we definitely didn’t have a car that deserved to be sixth but we got ourselves to do that and went away with some very big success. That leads momentum into other Grands Prix.”

It’s unquestionable that Pirelli has injected much more action and excitement into the sport in recent years, irregardless of the complaints throughout the paddock in recent weeks. Naturally those teams’ and drivers’ who would usually fail to score points on a regular basis are going to sing the praises of Pirelli, in a sport which now has more emphasis than ever before on strategy.

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